Page 20 of First Surrender

He blows out a deep breath, softening his facial features altogether as his head tips back, staring at the dark night sky. A silent prayer before answering me.

“Things are bad around here. People are going missing. Being killed. Women are being picked up off the side of the road and barely making it out alive. I wasn’t going to sit back and let that happen to you because you thought it was a good idea to go on a date with some random man.”

I ignore the dark things he just told me, finding it easier to argue with him about the last part instead. “How do you know that I didn’t know him? We could have gone way back. You don’t know me and you certainly don’t get a say in my dating life.”

“Yeah, then why are you standing here with me right now and not with that loser?” He glares at me hard, daring me to challenge him.

“I’d rather walk.” I turn my back to him but before I can take a step his arm shoots out to block me from walking away.

“I’d rather not be here. I’d rather you not need me at all but Iwillbe here every time you need me.” He steps back out of my bubble and unlocks the car, reaching past me to open the door.

“Get in before I change my mind about the backseat,Nat.” He enunciates my disgusting nickname on purpose, doing whatever he can to avoid any reverence toward me.

My ass plops into the seat, folding my arms dramatically as he shuts my door. When he rounds the front of the vehicle he looks as put together as he normally does. Even slightly pissed off and stoic as hell, he’s a handsome bastard.

“Why do you insist on calling me, Nat?” I ask once he’s driving.

“Because you hate it for some reason and you’re like a pesky bug that won’t leave me alone.”

“You’re such a dick.”

“Yeah, well. So, are you.”

I scoff. “Most men would refer to me as a bitch, not a dick.”

“I would never call you that.”

“But, you’ll call me a dick?” I ask incredulously.

“Well, I’m not perfect.” He shrugs.

If I wasn’t so frustrated with him, I’d laugh. It only makes me more frustrated. Nothing good ever comes when we’re in the same vicinity as each other but we keep ending up in the same place. Whether by chance or by choice. I think he’s the pesky bug that won’t leave me alone.

Chapter Eleven

Natalie

“Are there really people being kidnapped around here?” I ask him after a couple of minutes of suffocating silence. He doesn’t have music playing, the only sound in the interior of the car is his equipment rattling around and frequent alerts from his police radio.

“Unfortunately.”

“Kids?” My thoughts always go to Dec. It’s a revolving door in my mind, especially since becoming his guardian.

“Mostly adults. One teenager.” His flat tone is more deflated than usual but it doesn’t keep me from pushing the topic.

“Sore subject?”

He scoffs. “Yeah, you could say that.” There’s a long pause of silence until he continues. “One of my friends. I didn’t know who she was at the time, but she was driving through Rollins about a year and a half ago. She got a flat tire and ended up being kidnapped off the side of the road right outside of town. She barely survived but when she did they put a target on her head. They tried again and she made it out alive, again. That was my first encounter with it.”

“Your first kidnapping?”

“The first time that I heard information about a supposed human trafficking ring running through here,” he clarifies.

The gasp that leaves my mouth is unintentional but he glances in my direction anyway. “People from here are being taken and sold?” I ask in astonishment because it doesn’t seem real.

He sighs again. “I don’t know for sure, but that’s my running theory. People are disappearing, not to be seen again. Drug addicts are overdosing left and right. We had a group of extremists try to blow up Main Street. Rollins is a mess.”

“Wow. Maybe I should have taken Dec back to New York,” I mumble.

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